NASA’s experimental Morpheus lander explodes during test flight

Project Morpheus is a new, test spacecraft being developed at Johnson Space Center.

In July a prototype of Morpheus was moved from Houston to Kennedy Space Center for additional field testing. After a tether test flight on August 3, and subsequent testing, the Morpheus lander exploded during an experimental flight today.

Morpheus features a lot of experiment technology, including new green propellant propulsion systems and autonomous landing and hazard detection technology. With a budget of less than $7 million over 2.5 years (pretty sure this does not include most labor), the Morpheus project is considered lean and low-cost by NASA.

Today’s crash is a reminder that spaceflight remains a real challenge.

Morpheus’ propellant combination – liquid oxygen and methane – is of particular interest because it can be stored for longer times in space, compared to other common propellants such as liquid hydrogen. It is also much cheaper to test and use than other space fuels.

Project Morpheus is one of 20 small projects that are part of NASA Advanced Exploration Systems program. Best of luck to the engineers as they figure out what went wrong and correct the problem.